EFCC legal lead counsel, Mr. Ibrahim Isyaku (SAN), had called attention to the absence of the second accused, Mrs. Okoronkwo, and said the trial could not commence in her absence.

HE is a far cry from the more flashy Leaders that preceded him. But that Senator Teslim Folarin is today fully in the saddle and deftly asserting himself as the leader of the Senate is not in doubt. As the fulcrum upon which the business of the Senate revolves, Senator Folarin has remarkably carried out his duties with a simplicity that betrays his relative freshness to the complexity of national politics.

Again, the Peoples Democratic Party is playing yo-yo with the collective aspiration of a people.  Penultimate week, the party declared that come 2015, the South East geo-political zone would produce the next president of Nigeria.  But this declaration has been causing ripples in the polity. By Henry Umoru Abuja – The highest political position an […]

Senator Polycarp Nwite, senior special assistant to the president (political matters), is a chip from the old political block determined to instill some freshness into the political landscape. A member of the third republic Senate, Nwite would be remembered for his contributions to the pro-democracy struggle during the military era. Now a chieftain of the […]

AFTER several dithering the much expected winding processes of constitution amendment have started fully by the National Assembly. During Plenary Tuesday, the House of Representatives followed the Senate footstep; when it began its second reading of the bill seeking to amend the 1999 Constitution. On its part, the Senate had penultimate week gone through its second reading and subsequently referred the exercise to its committee. The Senate Committee is expected to commence sitting any moment from now.

He was charged along with Saro-Wiwa and the other eight Ogoni leaders who were hanged by the military junta headed by the late Gen. Sani Abacha in November 1995. Only Mitee among the whole lot was spared the hangman’s noose after the controversial verdict of the Justice Auta led Tribunal. Undaunted even after he survived the Abacha gulag, he forged ahead with the agitation of the Ogonis for environmental justice.

CHIEF David Attah was spokesman for the late maximum ruler, Gen Sani Abacha. He had before then been Group Personnel Manager of the Daily Times, General Manager of Standard, two-time commissioner in Benue State and Member, House of Representatives. In this interview, he argued that Nigerians cannot continue to blame Abacha for the nation’s woes, more than ten years after his death and warned that the nation is drifting. Excerpts:

Etubom Anthony Ani, former Minister of Finance during the regime of late General Sanni Abacha, is the founder of Peat, Marwick, Ani and Co, a firm of Chartered Accountants. In this interview, he spoke on the implication of exclusion of Cross River State from the list of oil producing states and how this may affect the relationship between the state and Akwa Ibom. Excerpts:

APART from the 2008 budget of Anambra State which polarized the state House of Assembly and led to its sharp division before the budget was finally passed after the intervention of the State Elders’ Forum, another issue that recently threatened the peaceful coexistence of the 30_member legislature is the controversial N250 million allegedly found with one of the aides of Governor Peter Obi.

DR. FESTUS IYAYI is a lecturer in the University of Benin.
He came into limelight when he was the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), where he joined others to confront the obnoxious policies of the Babangida administration. Since then, he has not looked back. A radical author and human rights activist, Iyayi in this interview with Vanguard described Nigeria as failed nation state. Excerpts: